Overview

Distribution

Range Description

This species breeds on Tasmania and off the coast of south Australia, with the bulk of the population in the south-east. It undergoes transequatorial migration, wintering north of Japan near the Aleutian Islands (USA), with some moving north of the Bering Strait. The return migration route incorporates the central Pacific, with some moving down the western coast of North America.

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Global Range: Breeds on islands off coast (and locally along mainland coast) of southern Australia, with largest numbers around Tasmania and islands of the Bass Strait (see map in Austin et al. 1994). Ranges at sea in southern Australian and New Zealand waters, and north through Pacific Ocean to Bering and Chukchi seas (some to Beaufort Sea), south along west coast of North America to Baja California (Los Coronados Islands).

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Habitat and Ecology

Breeding occurs mainly on coastal islands, typically in areas of grassland or other vegetation, but sometimes cliffs or bare ground (del Hoyo et al. 1992). It conducts a bimodal feeding strategy whilst breeding, alternating short foraging trips to local waters with long foraging trips (up to 17 days) to the Polar Frontal Zone. Short trips allow greater chick provisioning at the sacrifice of body condition, which is then recovered in richer sub-Antarctic waters. Diet includes fish (particularly mycotphids), crustaceans and squid (Weimerskirch and Cherel 1998). Feeding occurs in flocks of up to 20,000 birds, and it has been seen associated with cetaceans. It is a trans-equatorial migrant, wintering off Aleutian Islands, some moving north of Bering Strait (del Hoyo et al. 1992).

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Migration

Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Seen along British Columbia, U.S. west coast, and in central Pacific during southward migration in late northern summer through winter (National Geographic Society 1983, Cogswell 1977, Pratt et al. 1987). Some nonbreeders remain off California during northern winter (National Geographic Society 1983).

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IUCN Red List Assessment

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

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Trends

Population

Brooke (2004) estimated the global population to number > c.23,000,000 individuals, while national population estimates include: < c.1,000 individuals on migration in Taiwan; >c.1,000 individuals on migration in Japan and >c.1,000 individuals on migration in Russia (Brazil 2009).

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Comments: In the last 100 years, many new colonies have been established both within and outside the historical range, representing a major range expansion and a possible population expansion (see Austin et al. 1994).

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Relevance to Humans and Ecosystems

Benefits

Economic Uses

Comments: Prior to settlement by Europeans, aborigines in Tasmania harvested eggs and chicks for food. Subsequently, formed the basis of a muttonbird industry with up to one million chicks taken each year for their meat, feathers, and oil (Skira et al. 1985).

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Wikipedia

Short-tailed shearwater

The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris; formerly Puffinus tenuirostris), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested. It is a migratory species that breeds mainly on small islands in Bass Strait and Tasmania and migrates to the Northern Hemisphere for the boreal summer.

Adult near Burrow on Bruny Island. The photograph was taken at night.

Fledgling, Austins Ferry, Tasmania, Australia

This species appears to be related to the sooty shearwater and the great shearwater, which are also blunt-tailed, black-billed species, but its precise relationships are obscure (Austin, 1996; Austin et al., 2004). These are among the larger species of shearwater, which it is suggested might belong in a separate genus, Ardenna (Penhallurick & Wink, 2004).

Each parent feeds the single chick for 2–3 days and then leaves for up to three weeks in search of food. These foraging trips can cover a distance of 1,500 km (930 mi) and mean the chick may be left unattended for over a week. When the chicks fledge they weigh around 900 g (2 lb), and may be heavier than their parents. In Tasmania, and especially on the muttonbird islands of the Furneaux Group, the chicks are harvested at this time for food and oil. The largest population in the world (2.8 millions of pairs - about 12% of this species) seems to be located on Babel Island. Adult birds foraging for food on the open ocean mistake plastic debris for food and then feed it to their chicks.[2][3] This ingested plastic, as well as other factors, likely contribute to contamination of chicks.[4] Thousands of Short-tailed shearwater fledglings are attracted to artificial lights during their maiden flights from nests to the open ocean. Fledglings are vulnerable to injury or death by collisions with human infrastructure and once grounded, to predation or becoming road casualties.[5]

Contents

Being a seabird, the flesh is covered in a considerable quantity of fat, which is normally removed in preparation of the meat before cooking.[citation needed]

When split down the breast and cooked on a barbecue, the resultant meat is red and thick, with a taste reminiscent of a beef steak more than of lamb, with a mild hint of the sea. The texture of the meat is similar to lamb or mutton and hence the name muttonbird.

^Ogi H (1990) Ingestion of plastic particles by Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters in the North Pacific. In: Shomura RS, Godfrey ML (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Marine Debris, 2–7 April 1989, Book NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-154_P635. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Honolulu